MILLBROOK – No one was injured in what appeared to be a bomb scare in Millbrook Thursday morning.

Cpl. De-Anne Sack, with the Millbrook RCMP, confirmed with the Truro Daily News that a “suspicious device” was located by a community member at the end of a property line on Abenaki Road in the morning. The community member then placed it in a trash can and took it to the RCMP at about 11:15 a.m.

Upon investigation, it was confirmed the device was not an explosive.

“It was dressed up to look like one … it was definitely homemade and we don’t even know how long it was sitting there. I can’t speculate why someone would create this,” Sack told this paper on Thursday afternoon.

She described the device as a two-foot stick, surrounded by packing tape with three shiny items.

“It was the top of a socket and little canisters of sorts,” she said, adding it appeared to be a “hitting weapon.”

Sack believes the device was “not targeted at anybody” and it roused attention because it “appeared suspicious because it was long and wrapped in foil.”

To ensure public safety, Highway 2 was blocked off

between Brooks Lane and William Barnhill Drive and the nearby Millbrook Preschool was evacuated. In addition, businesses within a 100-metre radius of the device were evacuated as were community elders, the band office and Jason’s Convenience general store.

“We wanted to err on the side of caution for safety.”

A bystander who was watching police divert traffic away from the cordoned off area said he didn’t know what to think when he arrived on scene to go home for dinner.

“I live nearby and I just came down here,” the man, who wished to remain anonymous, said while standing on the sidewalk with a small group of onlookers at the corner of Abenaki Road.

“I just want to go home and eat my bologna sandwich,” he said.

At about 1:40 p.m., the explosive device unit from Halifax used a water canon to “blow up the device,” said Sack, adding the situation was then declared safe. Closed roads were reopened just before 2 p.m. and everything “went really, really smooth,” said Sack.

The investigation is continuing, said Sack, and anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the Millbrook RCMP at 893-6819.